Hypothetically, who exactly would fire Brandon procedurally?
We've talked alot about Brandon potentially getting fired and the Board of Regents dislike for him, but one thing I'm not clear on is from a procedural standpoint, who would fire Brandon? Does the Board of Regents have the actual authority to do this, or only the President? Do they have to be in agreement?
September 24th, 2014 at 3:40 PM ^
I'd much rather talk to Hoke than Brandon.
But Hoke hasn't really shown the organizational skills I think you need. He could be the figurehead, but he'd need a really strong operations guy, a COO-type. It could work, but it could be really awkward for the incoming coach and Hoke. This isn't a Schembechler/Alvarez easing into retirement phase.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:01 PM ^
Don't forget "We're not going to talk about injuries"
September 24th, 2014 at 3:30 PM ^
I like this idea.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:30 PM ^
It would be great. I don't see how that would be possible though, Hoke has no experience running an AD.
September 24th, 2014 at 5:32 PM ^
Just like Brandon!
September 24th, 2014 at 5:05 PM ^
I don't know if Coach Hoke could be AD, but I have been wondering if there's some position within the university that he could have so he could still be involved and possibly even still involved in recruiting, which appears to be his strong suit. I'm guessing a new coach would not be cool with that, though.
September 24th, 2014 at 9:19 PM ^
September 24th, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
Threads like this keep us coming back.
September 24th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
they are politically motivated (read their bios, the 1st thing about them is their political party) and generally know nothing about running a university's AD.
http://www.regents.umich.edu/about/bios/
September 24th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
1. They're listed by political party because all Boards of Regents/Trustees/etc. for state colleges and universities are elected positions, by law.
2. At the end of the day, the Athletic Department runs itself. It's been completely separate from the University's financial structure and direct institutional control for over a century. Sure, the BoR have a say and a stake in a lot of things, especially large financial expenditures and major projects, but they don't have to "know how to run an Athletic Department." That's what an Athletic Director is supposed to do--and which is why we have a problem.
The problem, in other words, isn't the BoR. It's Dave Brandon.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
So you're saying only Dave Brandon can fire Dave Brandon?
September 24th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
September 25th, 2014 at 8:41 AM ^
What does an athletic department runs its self mean?
His direct supervisor is responsible for his evaluation, and if he will be retained or not. That would be the President. I've never heard of Regents having to sign off of a non-renewal. That would be your human resources department. I've worked in college athletics, saw a football coach get fired, and it was the AD's decision with the support of the President. Now BOD or Regents were involved in anyway.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^
The Democrats aren't out to get Brandon because he's a Republican.
September 24th, 2014 at 3:39 PM ^
Perhaps this has been discussed in other threads, but another issue to consider is that Regents are elected by voters through statewide election. Two regents, Darlow and White, have terms that expire on January 1, 2015. Darlow will not seek reelection.
Regents will sometimes campaign on football-related issues, which is sort of sad but also probably a logical thing to do. If Brandon's approval from Michigan fans is actually as low as it seems to be given the media, perhaps this may make a difference. Also, perhaps the outgoing regents may wish to get something in motion before they're (possibly) gone.
I do not know how Darlow and White feel about Brandon. I will attempt to find out how the Republican candidates feel about him and I will report back.
September 24th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
I think we can guess
September 24th, 2014 at 4:04 PM ^
I hope you are not suggesting that one's political point of view determines whether or not a candidate thinks our current athletic department and football program are tire fires.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:11 PM ^
I took that to mean he had some "in" with the Republican Party of Michigan and had access to speak to those particular trustees.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:29 PM ^
I wouldn't go so far as to call it an "in," but this is mostly accurate. I do not purport to know any regent candidates position on this issue (to the extent a candidate has a position on this issue.) I also will not disclose any candidate's position on this issue unless that candidate consents to such a disclosure, of course.
My point, though - you can kind of sort of vote on this. But then again if the decision is taking place after January when the terms end, we're in a pretty bad place.
September 25th, 2014 at 8:44 AM ^
Maybe Michigan opperates differently than where I worked, but Regents or BOD were only involved in hiring, not firing. That was the President and HR.
September 24th, 2014 at 5:55 PM ^
If Schlissel wants to fire Brandon, the Regents are not going to get in his way. I think most Presidents would resign in a heartbeat if their board did not back them on such an important decision.
September 24th, 2014 at 3:48 PM ^
See what I did there!?!
September 24th, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^
I have no idea if President Schlissel would be the one actually hiring a new AD, but I'm not 100% confident in an ivy leaguer who has admitted "sports isn't all that important" to hire an athletic director. Does anyone know if the board of regents has a role in that?
If DB gets the boot, let's get a list of options:
Jeff Long, Arkansas, former administrator at Michigan.
Lloyd Carr, retired, philopsher and Michigan Man.
Any others you can think of that you would trust to run a coaching search?
September 24th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
Brad Bates (Boston College) and Ward Manuel (UConn) were floated in an article yesterday.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
Bates and Manuel seem to be like they'd be heavy favorites going into a new AD search.
September 24th, 2014 at 5:23 PM ^
September 24th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
Manuel has been very successful at UConn and he played with Jim Harbaugh. If Harbaugh is really our top target then having an ex-teammate try to hire him is a great place to start.
September 24th, 2014 at 5:57 PM ^
...which means he'd probably be against hiring Harbaugh.
September 25th, 2014 at 9:01 AM ^
I'd like to have Jeff Long from Arkansas. I don't know if you've ever been to the state of Arkansas, but if you can lure a guy from a three time defending Big Ten champion to coach in that dump of a state/program, you can probably do a wondrous job at U of M.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:48 PM ^
September 24th, 2014 at 9:08 PM ^
Carr would be an interesting option as an interim AD. One of the issues UM has is timing if theplan is to replace Brandon and Hoke. In an ideal world, you fire Brandon, run your AD search, then turn your attention to HC when you have an AD. But I don't think you can fire Brandon before the end of the season. It would be seen (correctly) as telegraphing an intent to fire Hoke. Its no better, and maybe a little worse, than just firing Hoke mid-season, which I think we can agree would be a terrible idea. The probelm then is, how do you find enough time sequentially hire an AD and HC between the end of the season and end of 2014 recruiting? I'm not sure you can, at least not well. Appointing Car as an interim AD to do the HC hire then step aside when a new AD is selected could be a reasonable option.
September 24th, 2014 at 9:31 PM ^
Lloyd Carr is the reason Brady Hoke is Michigan's coach. Mr. Carr's friend and ally Jim Stapleton, who is on the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents, has come out in strong support of Mr. Hoke and has blamed all of Michigan's current problems on Rich Rodriguez. I think Mr. Stapleton's comments are a pretty clear signal of what Mr. Carr is thinking right now.
Leaving aside whether Mr. Stapleton is correct or not, I think it is pretty clear that Mr. Carr would lack the required level of objectivitiy when it comes to evaluating the head coach's job performance. We can be pretty confident that if he were told he was being hired on the condition that he fire Mr. Hoke, he would absolutely refuse to take the job.
September 24th, 2014 at 10:31 PM ^
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September 24th, 2014 at 10:01 PM ^
I have no idea if President Schlissel would be the one actually hiring a new AD, but I'm not 100% confident in an ivy leaguer who has admitted "sports isn't all that important" to hire an athletic director.
Except Schissel has not said this and has actually talked at length about the importance of athletics. The quote you're randomly twisting was from when he said there needs to be appropriate balance in the University between athletics and academics. He didn't even say there wasn't currently an inappropriate balance. It was literally just a boilerplate answer to a question about the role of athletics in higher education, Michigan specifically.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:19 PM ^
September 24th, 2014 at 4:31 PM ^
September 24th, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
He'd have to get Schlissled. The President technically has sole discretion over the hiring/firing of the Athletic Director, however you can bet your ass that a first year guy from Brown is heavily consulting with regents who've been around the diag a time or two.
September 24th, 2014 at 4:48 PM ^
Six AD's in 26 years. And 10 of those years the office was occupied by one man, who was on a boat and unreachable at the most critical point in his tenure. We need a Don Canham, first and foremost, then the coaching situation will be resolved.
September 25th, 2014 at 11:30 AM ^
That's a myth.
He was "unreachable" because he had no intention of hiring Miles. He did not miss anything he did not intend to miss.
September 24th, 2014 at 5:49 PM ^
These Guys -- The Bobs
September 24th, 2014 at 6:36 PM ^
September 25th, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
Two management consultants via video conference.
September 25th, 2014 at 7:38 AM ^
It's all WebEx now.